The Gourd reappears in the film, again being taken out to eat by Hirayama and Kawai, and confesses his guilt for the plight of his daughter. He provides one of the many possible fates for Hirayama — the sailor being another, and a third being painted by his and Kawai’s pal Horie (Ryuji Kita), a widower who has remarried a woman barely older than Hirayama’s daughter. But, while these may all seem, on the surface, heavyhanded or predictable uses of symbolism, they are not. First, all of the moments leaven their pathos with humor, and vice-versa. Secondly, much of the film’s action (as it does in many Ozu films) occurs offstage.
As an example, we hear of Michiko’s plaints to her sister-in-law Akiko from Akiko, speaking of Michiko’s earlier visit, but we never see the visit. Later, after Michiko is disappointed to find out that Miura, whom she has feelings for (and who had feelings for her, but was earlier snubbed as a suitor by Koichi), is engaged to another woman, we also never see her reaction to the disappointment. We are only told of it secondhand, by Kazuo.
Then we get a sense of Ozu’s naturalistic humor, when, after learning of his daughter’s spurning by Miura, he turns to Kawai and his potential suitor, only to learn that Horie has set up Kawai’s man with his own assistant at work. Hirayama feels depressed, until his friends let him know it was a joke, revenge for a joke Hirayama and Kawai played on Horie, insisting he was dead to a restaurant server.
Then we get a great ellipsis. An unspecified amount of time has passed, and Michiko has been married off to Kawai’s suitor (we never see him nor the wedding to Michiko). Hirayama goes drinking with Kawai and Horie, at Kawai’s home, then leaves them for a bar, where he pities himself. He goes home. His daughter is gone, and only Kazuo remains. His youngest child scolds him for drinking, and goes to sleep, and the film ends with Hirayama alone in his kitchen, slumping in a chair. Whether he is recharging or accepting a slow fade into being like The Gourd, is unknown, for we see him only in a mostly rear shot, and this makes what he really is thinking all the more mysterious, and effective. Also, it allows for more emotional imbuement and empathy to end the film.
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